Jun. 6-12 - The Queen's Club - 1st and 2nd rounds

Earlier this week the Aegon Championship, also known as The Queen's Club began.  It is the first warm up for Wimbledon and it starts the grass season.

Just three days after his victory in Paris, Nadal started his campaign toward winning Wimbledon.  On Wednesday he beat Aussie qualifier Matthew Ebden 6-4, 6-4 in the second round.  Nadal received a bye in the first round as well as the top eight players in this tournament.

Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer both withdrew from their first warm up for Wimbledon, but Rafa decided to participate even after just winning the French 3 days ago.  “To celebrate the victory, I’m going to have time later,” Nadal said. “I have to be focused on the grass-court season.”

Nadal struggled a little bit in his opening match but that is usual when switching from clay to grass that quickly.  It’s impossible to be playing well the first day,” said Nadal, the 2008 Wimbledon champion. “The energy is not in the perfect condition right now but I’m here to try my best as usual."

“I’m here because I love this tournament … but at the same time, it works for me to try to start to have the feelings on grass. Sure, my conditions are not perfect because I feel everything (his muscles) a little more tighter than usual.”

Nadal on the grass at The Queen's Club.

In his first match there were constant rain delays and Andy Murray's extended match which both kept Nadal in the locker room much longer then he wanted. 


Andy Murray defeated Xavier Malisse in the second round 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 to set up a third round match against Janko Tipsarevic.  The 2009 Queen's champ said his ankle is still bothering him as he starts his journey to gain his first Grand Slam title.


“I want to play as many matches as possible, but I also want to go into Wimbledon pain free,” Murray said. “Obviously playing on it and doing what I did at the French Open is not exactly the best course of action to get the ankle better.

In other matches eighth-seeded Marian Cilic of Croatia advanced to the third round, beating French qualifier Arnaud Clement 6-4, 6-4.

Twelfth-seeded Juan Martin Del Potro won his match first round match beating Denis Istomin  6-4, 6-2 and his second round match against Igor Kunitsyn winning 6-4, 6-4. 

Third-seeded Andy Roddick won his second round match against Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (5-7), 6-4.

Seventh-seed Verdasco beat Nicolas Mahut 6-2, 6-3 and Fifth-seeded Frenchmen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is into the third round after a defeat of Michael Berrer 6-0, 6-1. 

Fernando Verdasco

In the second round fourth-seeded Stan Wawrinka was upset by James Ward of Great Britain.  Sam Querrey of the U.S. won his 1st and 2nd round match.

Sixth-seeded Gilles Simon of France withdrew due to injury from his second round  match after winning the second set and being up 3-0 in the third.  This led to Adrian Mannarino also of France going to the third round.


Come back tomorrow for 3rd round updates.